Google Lost the Nexus 4 in a Bar

In a very, heh, familiar story, Google apparently lost the upcoming Nexus 4 in a bar last month. Yes, the LG Nexus phone we expect to be unveiled next week. Yes, the phone that's probably going to take the crown as the best Android phone available when it comes out.

The phone, which was lost at the 500 Club in San Francisco's Mission District, was found by Jamin Barton, the bartender who discovered it. It was locked, had no SIM card and had a Google logo and an explicit 'not for sale' sticker on the back.

When Barton showed the phone to a tech-savvy regular, he immediately knew it was the next Nexus and contacted Google, who promptly freaked out and started an epic chase sequence that seems straight out of the movies. Google dispatched Brian Katz, global investigations and intelligence manager at Google, who's described as "pushy" and "military"-like to retrieve the phone. Wired says:

By the time Katz was speeding north to the Mission District, Barton says, he had already agreed to hand the phone over to Google the next day, at noon, on the sole condition that the guy coming to get it could prove he actually worked for Google. "What was I supposed to do, look for the guy with Google shirt? How did I know this guy didn't work for Apple?"

There was a bit of a cat and mouse game being played, with Barton avoiding Katz (since Katz refused to admit he worked for Google) and a riot thrown in there for good measure but in the end Google got its phone back. Google offered Barton a free phone if he would keep quiet about its embarrassing episode but thankfully he declined, so we have another lost phone at a bar story to laugh at. Read the whole entertaining situation over at Wired. [Wired]